1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to containers for holding and dispensing floss material, and particularly vial-shaped floss dispensers.
2. Description of Related Art
Floss is dispensed from a wide variety of containers and dispensers. Most common floss dispensers are a rectangular package with a sideways mounted circular spool of floss material dispensing floss through a hole in the top of the package past a cutting blade. The top of the package and the cutting blade are generally protected by a hinged lid. A particular successful example of this basic design in taught in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,156,311, and D-339,426, which includes a view-window through which the amount of floss in the container can be monitored. Since floss is dispensed from these containers in a direction perpendicular to the axis of the floss spool, floss generally dispenses very smoothly.
One problem with this basic design is limited holding capacity of the container. While such packages can readily hold 50 to 75 yards of floss fiber, significant increase in the amount of floss above this volume requires a redesign of the container. When W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc., Flagstaff, Ariz., introduced a floss package holding 200 yards of material, it opted for a cylindrical vial, with floss mounted on an upright mounted spool loosely inserted within the cylindrical container. While it would be preferred to dispense the floss from the top of such a container (i.e., in a direction approximately parallel to the axis of the spool), it was discovered that the floss would not cleanly payoff the spool when the floss was fed through a hole in the top of the vial, becoming periodically tangled and jammed during pay-off.
To solve this pay-off problem, a hole was introduced in the side of the floss vial through which the floss was threaded. To dispense, floss is pulled out perpendicular to the axis of the spool and then cut on a blade mounted on the top of the vial. This design provides very smooth floss pay-off. Unfortunately, when floss is threaded in this manner, a length of floss is left exposed on the outside of the vial between the hole in the vial and the top-mounted cutting blade. Further, the inability to seal this exposed length of floss makes it less desirable to provide a re-sealable lid on the top of the vial to protect the cutting blade and the exposed floss. Improvement in this design, particularly in the ability to completely seal the floss before sale and between uses, is thus desirable.
Accordingly, it is a primary purpose of the present invention to provide a floss dispenser with the large capacity of a vial but with ready pay-off of the floss material.
It is another purpose of the present invention to provide a vial-type floss dispenser that can dispense floss through one of its ends without tangling or jamming.
It is still another purpose of the present invention to provide a vial-type floss dispenser that can dispense floss through one of its ends so that the end, as well as the exposed floss and the cutting blade, can be protected with a removable lid between uses.
These and other purposes of the present invention will become evident from review of the following specification.